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Manufacturers of traditional items like jamdani in Bangladesh want the government to take immediate steps for ensuring the country’s ownership and patent rights. They say jamdani is solely a Bangladeshi item and not a generic one. Registering ownership of traditional items, is considered crucial in the era of globalisation.
According to the Geographical Indication (GI) rules, the real producer of any particular goods in an area will get the absolute rights of the registered products. GI is a name or sign used on certain products to certify that they possess certain qualities, as they are made according to traditional methods or enjoy a certain reputation due to their geographical origins. These rules help protect the ownership of traditional items.
If jamdani sari is registered locally under the law, no other country will export any clothing item with the name jamdani to Bangladesh. Jamdani has its roots in Bangladesh. It is a hand-woven, fine cotton fabric deftly embellished with intricate motifs that are expertly woven into the fabric. Jamdani was traditionally done using mill cotton thread, resham silk thread, muga silk and tussar silk thread. It is a specialty weaving style, where patterns are woven into the fabric.
Ancient Paracas textiles which were smuggled out by a Swedish diplomat are returning to Peru after 80 years. The items were handed back to the country following an agreement with museum authorities in Gothenburg last year. The rest of the Paracas textiles will return to Peru over the next seven years. Among the highlights are a 2000-year-old intricately colored shroud, measuring 41 inches by 21 inches, and 88 other textiles.
The so-called shroud of Gothenburg is uniquely complex. It includes some 80 different color tones and subtones such as blue, green, yellow, red and orange. It is divided into 32 frames decorated with items resembling condors, frogs, cats, corn, and human-like figures. Some researchers believe the shroud may be a sort of calendar related to the tracking of farming seasons. Experts still do not fully understand how the shroud’s creators achieved the combination of sewing techniques and pigments.
Textiles are very fragile. There are very few countries in the world that have conserved fabrics. Peru is one of them. These textile fragments are made from camelid wool (probably llama or alpaca) and plant fibers (identified as cotton). The bright colors include indigo, green, browns, pink and white. These were all produced using natural dyes and would have been particularly striking against the sandy beige colors of the surrounding landscape.
The Shandong Ruyi Technology Group is investing $2 billion to set up a cotton spinning facility in Pakistan. It has already bought 1,036 acres of land out of the total area of 4,500 acres in an industrial zone operated by the Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC). Shandong is China’s fifth largest textile company.
The Shandong Ruyi textile park will have an annual capacity to produce 1,57,000 tons of yarn, 500 million meters of Batik fabric, 100 million meters of denim fabric and 10 million pieces of jeans. The project will be implemented in two phases. In the first phase, it will set up the largest textile mill and in the second phase workshops and equipment, vending and packing units will be established over an area of 536 acres.
The project is estimated to generate job opportunities for more than 35,000 persons. Shandong Ruyi owns cotton fields in Australia and Vietnam from where it will import cotton to feed the spinning mill. The company will install a 135-mw coal-based power plant to avoid disruption of work. After meeting its requirements, surplus energy will be sold to other industrial units. The company will provide a combined effluent treatment plant to reduce the cost of production.
www.chinaruyi.com/doce/about/about.asp
Steiger has launched a new flat knitting machine which incorporates new technologies. Steiger is a Chinese-owned Swiss flat knitting machine builder. The Steiger C2.185.SCP uses the company’s recently developed compound needle and a new yarn feeder with both horizontal and vertical control.
The new compound needle, which has a split slider element is able to transfer stitches to and from both slider and hook, thus enabling stitch transfer whilst knitting all needles. The technology is particularly suited to complete or seamless garment knitting and in this gauge allows the knitting of 3 and 5 gauge look seamless garment. Steiger has used motorised feeders for some years now but has now introduced a new feeder with a controllable vertical movement.
The Steiger company is based in Switzerland. In the early 70s Steiger launched the first machines for producing elastic stockings and tubular articles for orthopedic uses. In 1980 to 1990, the company presented the Electra series of flat knitting machines for producing shaped knitwear. In 2005, Steiger presented a new concept of knitting machine, the Gemini. In 2008, came the Libra. This machine was created to bring the concept of high quality intarsia machine to a perfect quality and price relation. The machine is available with three systems and 16 motorized yarn-guides.
www.steiger-textil.ch/
Bangladesh's exports rose 7.22 per cent in May, from a year earlier, boosted by stronger clothing sales. In the first 11 months of this financial year, exports rose 12.56 per cent from a year earlier. Garment exports surged nearly 15 per cent in July-May 2013. The garment industry, which supplies to many western brands, has been in the spotlight after a string of fatal factory accidents.
Garments are a vital sector for the south Asian nation, whose low wages and duty-free access to western markets have helped make it the world's largest apparel exporter after China. The readymade garment industry in Bangladesh employs four million people. It has been looking for government support to buy land and relocate factories in unsafe buildings to a planned industrial park. The 2014-15 budget removed import duties on raw materials to make pre-fabricated buildings and abolished taxes on safety equipment such as fire-resistant doors and emergency lights. Global buyers have stopped giving orders to around 30 per cent of garment factories that are housed in unsafe, shared buildings.
Late last year, the government raised the minimum wage for garment workers by 77 per cent and amended its labor law to boost worker rights, including the freedom to form trade unions.
Australia's wool clip is expected to shrink further in the coming year. However, prices will rise by 6 per cent. The wool market was galloping along until February when demand from China slackened and the Australian dollar appreciated in value. Producers responded by withholding wool, leading to smaller offerings at auctions.
Declining growth in Chinese retail garment sales and the ongoing shift to synthetic fiber apparel in major developed economies are expected to constrain demand for finer wool. In the 10 months to April, Australian wool exports to China fell 3 per cent year-on-year. Demand for wool apparels in the US and the EU has been sliding since 2010, reflecting below-average economic growth and an ongoing shift to synthetic fibers.
Demand for Australian wool has also been weak during the June quarter to date, constrained by tighter access to credit for Chinese textile manufacturers. Australian wool exports declined by an estimated 2 per cent in 2013–14 to 430,000 ton greasy with shipments of superfine greasy wool (19 microns and less) jumping by about 15 per cent and exports of broader wool falling by around 20 per cent. Further reductions in shorn wool production are expected to reduce wool exports by 7 per cent in 2014–15.
The ongoing ITMA Asia + CITME being held from June 16 to 20 at Shanghai New International Exhibition Centre, China is about 15 per cent bigger than the previous edition held in 2012. It is spread over 1,52,200 sq. mt. of exhibition space. It has opened with the largest presentation of textile machinery since the series made its debut in 2008. Some 1,600 exhibitors from 28 countries are taking part. The show has emerged as the ideal platform to market cost-effective solutions to the huge Chinese market.
The show has the participation of many Chinese and international textile machinery brands. Many of the exhibitiors are showcasing advanced automation, energy efficient and environmental-friendly solutions. In terms of exhibitor number, Chinese mainland fields the biggest contingent. The other top participators are Italy, Germany, Chinese Taiwan and Japan.
Exhibits are organised into sectors based on manufacturing processes. The spinning sector occupies the largest exhibit area, followed by the washing/dyeing/bleaching/printing/finishing sectors, knitting and weaving. ITMA Asia + CITME 2014 is organized by Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition and co-organized by MP Expositions. Japan Textile Machinery is a special partner association of the show.
The next ITMA Asia + CITME exhibition will be at Shanghai, October 24 to 28, 2016.
www.itmaasia.com/
In 2013, a strategic partnership agreement was signed between BCI and Cotton made in Africa (CmiA), benchmarking standards. Which means CmiA can now be sold as Better Cotton, increasing the amount available in the global supply chain. After successfully completing verification, more than 2,26,000 smallholder farmers in Cameroon are for the first time growing cotton to the CmiA standard. Cotton is considered one of the main sources of income for families in rural Cameroon, and, with CmiA’s support, these families will now have the tools they need to succeed financially. Including the family members of the smallholder farmers, this expansion into Cameroon means that an additional 1.5 million people will now benefit from the program.
Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) is an initiative of the Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) that provides assistance in helping people help themselves through trade, to improve the living conditions of cotton farmers and their families in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, more than 6,60,000 smallholder farmers in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon participate in the CmiA program. As CmiA’s reach expands, so does the global reach of Better Cotton, providing a more sustainable future for the cotton sector as a whole.
Bettercotton
Denim recently celebrated its 141st birthday, proving that some well-placed nips, tucks and makeovers can preserve one’s freshness. But over the last few years, one change has been less well received by denim wearers: the substitution of cotton for synthetic fibers. And some are saying it’s not enough to look the part; denim’s authenticity has to come from the inside, too.
The fiber swapping began after cotton prices surged in late 2010. Although prices stabilized a year later, the apparel industry continues to substitute manmade fibers for cotton. Adding a bit of stretch for comfort evolved into some denim jeans being made with blends of less than 50 percent cotton.
On an average, shoppers expect a pair of jeans to last about five years. However, research reveals consumer expectations aren’t being met. Seven out of 10 US consumers say apparel prices have increased, but they’ve also noticed clothes typically made with cotton are now made with other fibers, fabrics are thinner and don’t last as long. Overall, 66 per cent of US consumers are dissatisfied with fiber substitution in their denim jeans. And yet 60 per cent of consumers would pay more to keep the cotton in their denim jeans.
Some brands, recognizing consumer preference, remain steadfast in keeping cotton in their collections. At Robin’s Jean, a super premium brand that also has five retail locations, the denim fabric for both men’s and women’s styles have always been traditional all-cotton denim, or cotton with a single-digit percentage of stretch.
Blue jeans were born in San Francisco during the gold mining era, when tailor Jacob Davis teamed with Levi Strauss to create riveted workwear made of denim. The pair received an official US patent for their invention on May 20, 1873. Denim remained a conventional item until Hollywood gave it a cool factor in the 1950s. From there, it was only a matter of time before average Americans wanted to wear it. Of course, designer jeans took the category to new heights beginning in the late ’70s.
But throughout its various iterations, the fabric itself remained authentic to its heritage through its cotton construction – and remained a wardrobe favorite as a result. When compared to jeans with manmade fibers like polyester and rayon, the majority of women say 100 percent cotton or cotton/spandex jeans are the most breathable, durable, comfortable, fashionable and versatile.
www.robinsjean.com
Sporting goods company Adidas has entered into a strategic partnership with Bluesign Technologies of Switzerland. The aim is to advance sustainable solutions in the global supply chain. All suppliers to the Adidas group will have access to the global databank Bluefinder, which contains information on sustainable textile chemicals and production processes. All manufactured materials must then undergo strict testing, where the adherence to Bluesign criteria is checked.
Additionally, the adidas group continues to monitor the chemical management of manufacturers. In 2013 the company carried out 149 environmental inspections at the factories of its suppliers. Bluesign Technologies provides independent auditing of textile mills, examining manufacturing processes from raw materials and energy inputs to water and air emissions outputs. Each component is assessed based on its eco-toxicological impact. Bluesign is an emerging standard for environmental health and safety in the manufacturing of textiles.
Bluesign ranks its audit findings in order of concern, and suggests ways to reduce consumption while recommending alternatives to harmful chemicals or processes where applicable. Eco-conscious consumers can feel confident purchasing clothing items with the Bluesign label since they are buying environment-friendly products. Bluesign has gained serious traction in the last few years among some of the leading brands in the outdoor clothing and gear business.
www.bluesign.com/
